belonging connecting developing challenging transforming

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1 belonging connecting developing challenging transforming legal & academic community peers senior students staff responsibility identity capacity opportunities horizons empathy justice vocation

2 Case Study Clinical legal education, professional identity & curriculum design Flinders FYCP

3 Flinders Law School Practical legal training skills embedded throughout degree Skills developed and scaffolded from first year onwards PLT placement student entry level lawyer

4 Flinders LLBLP Legal writing Drafting Transactional Legal Practice Interviewing Interviewing Criminal Practice and Advocacy Negotiation Civil Litigation Practice Legal Practice Management Ethics Ethics Ethics embedded in all Practice topics FYCP Clinical exposure FLAC Clinical experience Industry Placement Clinical experience

5 Clinical Legal Flinders Law School Tensions between experiential learning & teaching providing professional and competent services to client managing limited university / staff resources Allows law students to explore and grow a personal sense of ethical, moral and professional identity develop wide variety of practical legal skills

6 Willis & Leiman, 2013, p.2. the examination of what it means to be a professional or to practise in a professional manner, is [not] simply a matter of rational critique. [Instead] moral development, along with the process of transformation towards an ethical and compassionate professional, requires a development of a personal philosophy of meaning

7 Dall Alba & Sandberg, 2010, p107 the kind of [real life] knowledge that makes explicit what was tacit and generates a richer understanding about practice

8 Clinical Legal Flinders Law School Practical Legal Training [PLT] skills embedded throughout LLBLP Final year PLT topics LLAW 3264 Social Justice Internship Flinders Legal Advice Clinic Student entry level lawyer

9 Flinders Legal Advice Clinic Free legal advice provided by interns under supervision of solicitors Commenced mid 2011 Spoke & Hub model Interns Enrolled in LLAW rd /final year students Volunteers students or graduates

10 Flinders Legal Advice Clinic Funding SSAF annually Law Foundation of SA Inc. grant (3 years) Legal Practice Management software from LEAP

11 Our Dream Every LLBLP student spends at least one semester working in Flinders Legal Advice Clinic (still a long way to go on this!) Could we start with first year students?

12 FLAC FYCP Project Aims Allow FY students to Make specific connections with future career options Generate and encourage intrinsic motivation Gain real life experience of legal practice as early as possible Engage and connect with discipline and law school community Create opportunities for networking with more senior students and staff

13 FLAC FYCP Project Aims Enhance FLAC by Supporting expansion of clinic Providing extra assistance for interns Increasing levels of service to clients Ensuring future clinic sustainability by generating interest among students who may wish to enrol or volunteer as interns in later years

14 What happens FY student Books placement day online Watches online induction videos and reads induction fact sheets Signs confidentiality agreement Attends clinic 9am-5pm Attends and observes during interviews Types up interns notes of interview

15 Integration FY Clinic placement attendance can be substituted for assessment exercise in LLAW 1221 Professional Skills & Ethics FY Clinic placements can be arranged at any time during the year LLAW 1221 Professional Skills & Ethics scheduled in semester 2.

16 Information provided to FY students during New in Law on FLO via Becoming a professional on FLO via LLAW 1211 Legal Research & Writing on FLO via LLAW 1212 Criminal Law & Legal Method

17 First Year Clinic Placement Spend 1 day at Flinders Legal Advice Clinic Unique Experiential Learning Opportunity Available to any first year LLBLP student Credit towards LLAW 1221 Professional Skills & Ethics

18 When Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays during semester Thursday Clinics operate during semester breaks too Where On campus At Christies Beach Magistrates Court

19 What will I do? Work with Clinic interns and staff Meet real clients Observe interviews Type up file notes Deal with real files Use real legal practice management software

20 Book online Go to FLO Becoming a Professional Click on First Year Scroll to FLAC First Year Clinic Placement Click on links to make booking Complete online Induction Modules Watch videos and read factsheets

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24 Video Induction

25 2014 Clinic operated on 59 days 118 FYCP spaces 176 students enrolled in LLAW FY students made bookings 46 attended Very positive feedback from all FYs Can we book in again? When can we enrol/volunteer as interns? Great to get to know senior students and staff Loved experiencing real life legal practice Rethinking possible future career directions

26 2014 Our FYCP students

27 BEFORE: What do you hope to get out of the clinic experience? I want to learn about a solicitor's interaction with clients and the roles all parties play in a legal setting. I want to learn how to become a professional and ethical law student, and eventually lawyer. I would like to learn and observe how lawyers handle the interviewing of clients and also, just get a feel of how a legal working environment and set-up is like since I have never worked in a law firm or legal setting before in my life.

28 AFTER: How different was your actual experience of clinic from your expectations of clinic? The main difference was the actual practical experience of actually handling a real-life client and working with peers on a real case that makes it so different from the chiefly theory-based learning from university and textbooks. The experience was a lot less daunting than what I thought it would have been.

29 AFTER: Has your idea of the role of a lawyer changed as a result of your participation in the clinic? Yes. A lawyer has to be very careful and professional in their dealings with their clients. He doesn't necessarily has to just sit there all there with the law books and try to do research. He has to actually be very active in interacting and communicating with his clients and making sure he has got the right facts from the client as well. A lot of EQ and soft skills are involved too.

30 Leiman,T. Ankor D. and Milne J., Read more Beginning in the first year: Towards a vertically integrated curriculum for clinical legal education. A Practice Report. (2015) 6(1) The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education 171. doi: /intjfyhe.v6i1.261

31 Deborah Ankor is the Associate Dean (Professional) and Director of Professional Programs at Flinders Law School, where she is responsible for managing the Practical Legal Training components embedded throughout the Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice. She is the topic coordinator of LLAW 3264 Social Justice Internship. Tania Leiman is the Associate Dean ( Teaching & Learning) at Flinders Law School, where she teaches tort law. She is also the Director of First Year Studies and a supervising solicitor at the Flinders Legal Advice Clinic. She has received several teaching awards, culminating in an Australian Learning & Teaching Council citation for sustained excellence in teaching that supports empowers and inspires first year students to engage with law. Her current areas of research include education of the heart, educating law students for a changing professional future, inherent requirements for legal education, clinical legal practice education, and managing the transition into legal education, particularly the first year in law study. tania.leiman@flinders.edu.au Lucy Evans is the Deputy Director of Professional Programs at Flinders Law School, where she teaches the Practical Legal Training components embedded throughout the Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice. Lucy s role involves significant liaison with the local legal profession, assisting students with the transition to professional life, input into the University s clinical program and teaching in commercial law and civil procedure. Admitted to practice law in 1998, Lucy was formerly a commercial lawyer and made the transition to academia in 2008 when she commenced as a Lecturer at the Flinders Law School. Lucy is passionate about providing students will real life skills and experiences whilst at University. lucy.evans@flinders.edu.au

32 ABSTRACT This presentation discusses Flinders Law School s innovative First Year Clinic Placement [FYCP] program designed to allow first year students early exposure to clinical experience and to the social justice ethos of a legal advice clinic. Significant numbers of students choose to study law as the result of external, rather than internal, motivating factors, including gaining status (Sheldon & Krieger, 2004, 264); concerns about employability, pressure to assume adult social responsibilities and progress towards a future career (Ryan & Deci, 2000, 60). However, preconceptions about future careers often have little basis in reality, especially when compared to the increasingly varied reality of the lived experience of lawyers in the 21 st century (Susskind, 2013; Remus, 2014; Friend, 2014; Nelson, 2014). Where ethical discussions seem to take place in the abstract, absent felt connection with real life implications, students may be left without a sense of purpose or vocation identified as being so necessary for effective transition both into, and then later out of, university (Lizzio, 2006) and for law student wellbeing more generally (Sheldon & Krieger, 2004). As Kift (2009) notes, students must be inspired, supported, and realise their sense of belonging; not only for early engagement and retention, but also as foundational for later year learning success and a lifetime of professional practice. Clinical experiences are powerful in [engaging and expanding] students expertise and professional identity (Stuckey, 2007, 113). As FYCP demonstrates, commencing students gain significant value from clinic involvement, despite their minimal legal skills or knowledge. It can stimulate and refine for students the values, ideals, hopes and inspirations that start to shape professional identity (Sullivan et al, 2007, 92-93); form their personal narrative of a way of being in the world and challenge them to consider how this aligns with values governing the legal profession (Willis & Leiman, 2013, 665).

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